Characterize your metro's city/suburban relationship

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

^ Yep, my presumption is that Detroit is probably the most extreme case of suburban-urban antipathy, although I'm glad to see that people are starting to come around

yeah, i can't think of any metro in the US with a more toxic city/suburb relationship than detroit had when L. brooks patterson was the commissioner of oakland county.

here are some of his choicer quotes about the city that anchored his metro area. yes, these are actual quotes from an elected official from a metropolitan county with some 1.2M people.

“I made a prediction a long time ago, and it’s come to pass. I said, ‘What we’re gonna do is turn Detroit into an Indian reservation, where we herd all the Indians into the city, build a fence around it, and then throw in the blankets and corn.’ ”


“Anytime I talk about Detroit, it will not be positive. Therefore, I’m called a Detroit basher. The truth hurts, you know? Tough shit.”


“I used to say to my kids, ‘First of all, there’s no reason for you to go to Detroit. We’ve got restaurants out here.’ They don’t even have movie theatres in Detroit—not one. I can’t imagine finding something in Detroit that we don’t have in spades here. Except for live sports. We don’t have baseball, football. For that, fine—get in and get out. But park right next to the venue—spend the extra twenty or thirty bucks. And, before you go to Detroit, you get your gas out here. You do not, do not, __under any circumstances, stop in Detroit at a gas station! That’s just a call for a carjacking.”